Dealership sold - Whom do I sue

[lm90638]

I have taken my truck into the dealer for extended warranty repairs on the AC since July 2011. Twice they refilled the freon and continually claim there is no leak. In October they even placed seals on the AC ports so I could not monitor the system myself. In November the extended warranty expired, in December the dealership was sold, and now my AC has again quite altogether. Whom do I sue for the repairs? The old dealership corporation, the new auto group which bought the dealership, or do I file a claim with the California department of insurance against the extended warranty company. The extended warranty company says I have no claim since the dealership never found a leak, but the AC failing every three months proves there must be a leak.

 

[mightymoose]

I believe you are correct. The service record shows there was a leak. AC service is expensive. They would not have refilled the refrigerant if it was not leaking. Their failure to identify a leak does not mean there wasn't one.

If you feel you have exhausted all other options and need to go to court then your complaint would be against the warranty company. You will need to show convincing documentation of the repairs already made. You also need to thoroughly review your documentation regarding the extended warranty and ensure that you follow the established procedure, and that your AC was covered in this circumstance.

Any action you might attempt against the dealer would be against the new owner.

 

[disagreeable]

IMO, you should have addressed this after the second failure. Spilled milk aside, I would get the system fixed and attempt to recover the money via small claims from the warranty company. You will need the proof of prior refills as well as receipt for the actual repair.

 

[lm90638]

Thanks for the responses. The one problem with trying to go after the warranty company is that they are in Chicago and I am in California. Without them having a presence in California, small claims court is not an option. I have talked to the warranty company and their claim is that they have done nothing wrong. They say if a leak had been reported, they would have authorized the repair. The problem is that the dealership never wanted to make the effort to thoroughly check the entire AC system. The dealership always blamed everyone else when they could not find a simple solution. After the last freon refill they even placed seals on both the high and low AC ports so I could not check the freon level myself. The only way I could gauge if the freon was still leaking was to wait until the AC quit working again. It is really the dealership who has been a total jerk and refused to perform. If the auto group who bought the dealership also bought all the liability for past bad repair work, then I am safe. I can easily take them to small claims court and with all the documentation I have prove that they never did a through job and because of that I lost out on the warranty company paying for the repair. The key is whether the new auto group owner is responsible for the bad repair work that the dealership previously did?

 

[disagreeable]

Likely, they are not. According to your receipt, how long did the dealer warranty the repair? I perused CA laws and found nothing indicating a successor dealer would incur warranty liabilities.